“She said her name was Marnie.”
I'm pushing past Aidan and running through the corridor faster than anyone can blink. Hawk doesn't have the chance to stop me. Nothing could stop me right now. I can't believe this; my heart is pounding so hard I feel a little sick. My stomach is tightening, but I'm not scared. There's no way she'd ever come here to hurt me. Even if Hank forced her, she would come and tell me exactly what he wanted with the intention of keeping me safe.
I know she'd lay her very life on the line for me, that I will never doubt.
I rush into the main room, and I instantly spot her standing with her back to me. Her long blonde hair is braided down her back. Her curves are covered in denim jeans, and a black jacket is covering her arms. I can smell her expensive perfume from here. “Marnie!”
She turns just in time to catch me. Arms wrapped tightly around each other as we cry. I never thought I'd see her again, and I don't care what brought her here, just that she is here — my beautiful big sister.
“I've missed you so much!” I sob down her ear.
“Shh.” She rubs my back and kisses my cheek.
I pull away from her and giggle as she wipes the tears from my eyes with her thumbs. “Did Hank send you here looking for me?”
“No, sweetheart. I came here looking for you to make sure you're okay. I knew this is where you would be after Hank yelled about the man you'd fallen in love with, and how you'd run off to be shack up with him. I am so proud of you for fighting for your little boy, Brooke.”
I blink, emotion burning my nose. She's proud of me. My big sister is proud of me. “I could do it because of all the lessons you taught me in life, Marnie. I could do it because you showed me that we're all the same inside.”
She cups my face with a proud smile on hers. “That's because we are. You look amazing, Brooke. Motherhood suits you.”
“Thank you.” I laugh. “Would you like to meet my family?”
“Oh, I would love to!”
I take her hand in mine and lead her over to where Hawk is watching us. He's standing beside the bar with his father and his brother. Some of the others are watching us, but they don't approach us. This is nothing to do with them; this is between my sister and me, and her meeting my new family.
We come to a stop in front of Hawk, a smile on my face. He smiles at me. “Hawk,” I grab his hand with my free hand, and he squeezes gently. He knows there's no threat here, my sister and I look too much alike for him not to recognize her. “This is my big sister. Marnie, this is Hawk, my fiancé.”
“It's nice to meet you.” My sister shakes Hawk's hand.
“Pleasure to me you, Marnie. I've heard a lot about you.”
“Oh my goodness,” She chuckles. “Nothing bad, I hope.”
“Not a thing,” Hawk assures her. “Brooke speaks highly of you.”
She looks at me with a smile on her face. I smile back and introduce her to Jack. “This is BlackJack, Hawk's father.” Jack winks at her with a smile, and Marnie blushes. She blushes a lot when men wink at her. Sometimes I wonder if it frightens her in case her husband finds out. He'd beat the hell out of her because he's a pig like that. One day, I will get her away from that man, or I'll die trying. “And this is Wrench, Hawk's younger brother.”
Wrench takes my sister's hand and kisses her knuckles. “Pleasure to meet you.” I can't help the laughter escaping me. He's flirting with my sister!
“Back off, Wrench,” I laugh. “She's a married woman.”
“One who is dying to meet her nephew.” She's so excited. Well, until CueBall leans over the bar and puts his two cents in, which he has no right to do!
“Come to see the little ape?” Everyone turns to look at him with wide eyes. “'Cause your father already came around here callin' names, girl. If you're here to cause trouble, turn your skinny ass around and leave now. We don't associate with racists.”
“That's enough, CueBall,” Jack warns. CueBall huffs and carries on drinking his beer.
I know everyone belonging to this club is angry that Hank came here. They're mad about what he said to Hawk about our son, about Hawk himself. No one told me about it until I overheard Taylor talking to Lynette about it. It hurt me. I finally understood why Hawk was so upset that day when he was talking to Gabriel about the horrible things people might say to him one day.
“Excuse me, CueBall?” My sister let's go of my hand and turns toward CueBall. He looks at her with narrow eyes. He looks scary right now. He's an older man in his mid-sixties, but he can be a force to be reckoned with at times. “I understand why you just said what you said. Hank is an extremely racist man, his sons, and wife also. However, I am not now, nor have I ever been racist. I taught Brooke to be like me, to treat every person with the same respect she'd like to be treated with.”
Everyone in the room is staring at my sister. I bet most of them are wondering how Hank Webster's daughters are one way when his sons are another. I don't know where Marnie came from, nor the views she grew up with, but I'm proud to be like her.
“I respect every person as long as they respect me. Color is just color. Color doesn't make a person arrogant, the way they were raised, and their environment does. Color doesn't make a person a killer; the same way color doesn't make a person rich and famous. No person on this earth is any better than anyone else. We are who we are because of who we choose to be. I prefer to love and be loved for who I am, not because my father is a racist and tried to force me to believe his views. I don't, never have, and never will think the way he does.
“However, I will tell you this only once. I don't care if you said it only to make a point. Don't you ever call my nephew an ape again. I might be a woman, but I'm not a weak one. I don't care how intimidating you bikers are; I will end you!”
“Marnie!” I yank her away from everyone and into a corner. I have never in my life heard Marnie speak to anyone that way. She can't talk to these men like that. They may not hurt women, but the women of the club definitely will if she speaks to their men like that! I can't risk her getting hurt.
I notice Hawk and his family whispering and looking over at us. Marnie seems upset, and I don't understand where that came from.
“I'm sorry, Brooke. I didn't mean to snap like that. I know he didn't mean anything by it, but your little boy is an innocent baby. I don't want to hear anyone say anything about him like that. It may have been said for effect because of Hank, but that hurt me so much.”
“Oh, Marnie,” I hug her for a moment. “No one here would ever say anything bad about Gabriel; they all love him. They were just upset because they thought maybe Hank had sent you here to get to me.”
She pulls away from me. “It wouldn't matter if Hank sent me here, Brooke, which he didn't. Nothing he ever said to me would have me coming here to hurt you.”
“I know, and I know you'd never do anything to hurt Gabriel.”
“Gabriel?” She smiles, letting go of everything else I said.
“Yeah,” I smile back. “Hawk's middle name is Gabriel. I wanted to name him after his father. Plus, your middle name is Gabriella, so it fit that I got to name my son after the two most important people in my life.”
Tears pool my sister's eyes, and I have to hug her to me again. “Sorry,” She sniffs. “I'm so honored, Brooke, but can I meet him now?”
I laugh, pull away from her and nod my head. I motion to Hawk that I'll be right back. He nods with a smile. I lead my sister down the hall to our room and close the door behind us. I smile as she moves closer to Gabriel's crib.
I watch her stroking his tiny cheek, whispering how much she loves him, and my heart breaks for her. A few years ago, Marnie fell in love with a boy at school, an exchange student from Italy. Marnie ended up pregnant, her boyfriend never even knew about the baby because he died before Marnie could tell him.
Marnie lost the baby, but to this day, I swear Hank kicked that child out of her. He found out about Vito, Marnie's boyfriend because he saw her and me
holding a vigil for him. Marnie couldn't go to his funeral because his parents flew his body home to Italy.
Hank was so angry, and he was hitting Marnie, so severely, hurting her and not caring that I was screaming for him to stop. Marnie made me run home. She didn't want me to get hurt too. I heard her yell at Hank how she was pregnant, and to please not harm her baby. That baby was all she had left of the man she was deeply in love with. I don't know; maybe she thought it would stop him. To this day, I don't think it did. It couldn't have done because no baby ever came home with her, and she was always sad.
I didn't see her for a while after he beat her because Hank was so angry with her that he sent her away. When she came back, he forced her to marry racist Paul to keep her in line. She's never had an easy time of anything, yet she's still the most beautiful, caring woman I've ever known.
I wipe the tears from my cheeks. I don't want Marnie to see me crying, but this hurts. Her baby would be four years old by now. Marnie should have her baby with her right now, here to meet his or her cousin. However, that baby was cruelly taken from my sister because it wasn't white and American through and through.
How do people endure this heartache?
Having your child taken from you in that way because its father wasn't classed as white in a racists eyes, I can't bear the thought.
I'm proud of myself for taking my little boy away from that place, for finding the strength to do so. If Gabe had been taken from me, I don't think I would have survived it.
“He's so beautiful, Brooke,” I stand beside Marnie and smile. “He's going to be tanned like his father; his color is coming in.”
She's right. Each day, Gabriel seems to be a little darker. He looks just like Hawk in every way. I'm so lucky. I really am.
I stroke my sister's back, and she looks at me. “Am I going to see you again after today?”